Here’s a February present – some red wines that, for the most part, are worth buying, trying and buying again. These were all sent to us for review, and you won’t break the bank with this bunch.

2010 McManis Family Vineyards Petite Sirah ($9.99, Total Wine) –
This isn’t just a Bold wine, it’s a deep wine: deep color, deep nose, deep palate. In other words, I liked it. It’s a purple-black wine, very dark, with a nose of fragrant, dark fruits. One of my sighworthy wines. On taste, it’s big cherry pop, licorice, a little smoky and some root beer (really). It’s a full-boded wine with a long finish that paired very well with high-quality burgers.

2010 Casa Silva Reserva Pinot Noir, Colchagua Valley, Chile ($12 online) –
This is a light-bodied pinot noir that smells of sour cherries (in a good way) and pretty, pink raspberries. On taste, it reminded me of cherry candies; a little too light for my taste in pinot noir. It would be a good wine for someone who is trying to learn about red wines, because it’s not too expensive, big or heavy and would probably be just right for a big white wine drinker.

2007 Hobnob Vineyards Shiraz, France ($9.99 online) –
This wine turned out to be the perfect antidote for a long day at the office. I went home, opened this, took a deep breath and found full cherries and a little earth. Then I took a sip and found cinnamon, a little spice, some more cherries and a nice-bodied wine with a medium finish. This was the first vintage for U.S. sales from this winery and it’s aimed at the young, hip crowd. It’s not too shabby after work for any age! It’s on my “buy again” list.

2009 Mandolin Syrah, Central Coast, Calif. ($11 online) –
A deep purple wine, with a deep nose of brambles and blackberries, this was just terrific with burgers. In fact, I used some of this wine when I made the burgers and it elevated those to a really yummy place. My notes say it’s a serene wine that has unity. On taste, it reflects the nose, very cherry with a smooth mouthfeel. A really, very nice wine. This is on my “you can give this to me as a gift anytime” list. Anyone listening? And you can’t beat the price.

2009 Caldora Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, Italy ($9 online) –
Here’s a food-friendly wine that’s also under $10 – what’s not to like? This Italian red blend has a light bouquet with faint cherry and a little cocoa on the nose. Sipping brings an off-dry, red fruit taste, specifically sour cherries, light currants and a little cola. It’s great with cheeses or pizza or red-sauce pasta dishes. If you get a chance, I’d recommend trying this medium-bodied wine.

2009 Tamas Estates Double Decker Red, Central Coast, Calif. ($8.99 ABC Wines) –
This blend of cabernet sauvignon, petite sirah and barbera (it was a Bold blend for sure) had a light cherry nose, so I wasn’t sure it would live up to Bold billing. On taste, it had some zippy spice, and proved to be a good, casual sipping wine. It’s comparable to a good house red in Italy or France, as it was good with food, too. It’s a medium-bodied wine that’s not pretentious and, for the price, you can’t go wrong with this one.

Dear “Glee” children:

Well, looky here!

I was all set to be all annoyed with “Glee”‘s special Michael Jackson episode, because they have proven not only to do a disappointing theme episode now and then (that Madonna episode was lacking, and the less said about the Christmas episode and its outing to sing depressing guilt-inducing songs about starving Africans to homeless children.) And they seem to have a habit of taking older music and singing it without seeming to be listening, you know, to the words they are singing, and then making a concerted effort to have it make sense in the story. You know, like you should.

So I didn’t hold out much hope. OK…no hope. Negative hope. A hope account with a negative balance and checks bouncing all over the place. Imagine my surprise that “MJ” was not only one of the better episodes of the season, musically speaking, but managed to make at least a minimal effort to tailor the songs being sung to the action of the episode – action that actually compels the season’s biggest stories forward. And they were gorgeously done – Artie and Hot Mike Chang (this is his new name) danced their way through the anime space-time continuum of “Scream,” and the surprise cast face-morphing in “Black and White,” just like Michael did it, was a sweet tribute. Also, Mercedes and Sam’s “Human Nature” was sexy, well-harmonized and romantic.

Just a couple of things – because you knew they were going to be:

- The lyrics of “Smooth Criminal” were creepy enough when Michael was singing them and we weren’t sure what he was saying. Hearing an attractive teenage girl doing a menacing duet about “blood stains on the carpet,” with a guy who’s just blinded one of her friends with a toxic slushie, is a wee unsettling. And creepy. Nice hat, though, Santana.

- No matter how much you frame “Ben” as a sweet song about a true blue friend, and no matter how adorable and accurate the harmonies are, and how cute Darren Criss looks in an eye patch, it’s still a song about a friendship with a rat. A murderous rat leader of a rat gang who will reward your friendship with gentle chewing on your face.

Look it up.

But overall, good effort, kiddies.

Love, and I almost mean it this time,

A (not that bitter) Gen-Xer

P.S. Nice Andrew McCarthy reference.

One thing the Swirl Girls take seriously is lending a hand to help others. And, when it’s helping provide a home for families whose children are receiving medical treatment in Palm Beach County, and that’s combined with great wine and wonderful food, we call that serendipity.

It’s also known as the Taste of Compassion event, Monday at CityPlace’s Harriet Himmel Theater, which benefits the Quantum House. We will be there with some yummy vino to pair with food from some well-known area restaurants, such as Paddy Mac’s, Verdea, The Breakers, Talay Thai, Sailfish Point Country Club, Hoffman’s Chocolates and more.

This is one of our favorite events, because of the quality of the wine, the food, the cause and yes, the people. Stop by, say “hello,” and discover what wines we’re pouring. We’ll be dipping into some great-tasting wines: Eroica Riesling, Ruffino Prosecco, Coppola Director’s Cut Chardonnay, Erath Pinot Noir, Coppola Director’s Cut Cabernet Sauvignon and the Antinori Toscana Red.

Join us for either early VIP admission ($125 ticket, starting at 6 p.m., gives you one hour early with special wine/food pairing) or general admission ($75 ticket, starting at 7 p.m.) and stick around for the silent and live auctions and raffle. Tickets are sold at www.quantumhouse.org. For more info, call (561) 494-0515.

<object width=”442″ height=”375″ classid=”clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-44

I admit to loving and fearing those yearly In Rememberance reels that show up award shows, because I like a good cry, and because I’m always afraid of being blindsided by being informed of the death of someone I didn’t know about. TCM’s tasteful, artful reel is particularly good, because it doesn’t just throw people up there to a sad song. It crafts that sad song something fierce.

Of course, I couldn’t escape the startling knowledge that we lost “Ozzie and Harriet”‘s David Nelson! I had no idea. He was always my favorite, because Ricky was too obvious a choice. David was the thinking girl’s teen idol. And he had those pretty wolf eyes, just like his brother!

He’s everywhere, I tells ya: Burt Reynolds will appear as the fishing enthusiast dad of Leann Rimes in “Reel Love,” an original CMT movie, on Sunday at 7 p.m. Apparently, Rimes is a lawyer in New York with a city hottie boyfriend, who is called home to Alabama to see to her dad, who’s not in good health. Wouldn’t you know it that there’s a cute guy she left behind in the south who she just might reconnect with?

This, of course, sounds a heck of a lot like “Sweet Home Alabama,” where Reese Witherspoon was a Southern-born fashion designer with a hot Kennedy-esque beau up north and a scruffy guy down home that she still carries a torch (and legal marriage status) for. I kinda hated that movie, but it made a jillion dollars, so I’m not surprised someone got around to remaking it. The one thing that we know this TV version has over the remake is Burt!

OK, so this is a little more ambitious than I thought. I am committed to watching as many Westerns and writing about them, because I always promised my grandfather that I would watch more cowboys. And I miss him.

But this weekend got away from me – family obligations – and I couldn’t manage to watch anything. I started “Rio Bravo,” with Granddaddy’s favorite, John Wayne, but haven’t finished watching it yet. So I decided to watch the very first episode of “Cheyenne,” a show I had never heard of until a few years ago when I saw it at Granddaddy’s house with him and my mom. As with most things that he liked that I’d never heard of, he was appalled.

I did gain some points by looking up the show on my Blackberry and being able to discuss some of Granddaddy’s favorite details, like that big strapping star Clint Walker, who played the titular Cheyenne Bodie, walked out because of a salary dispute, and was replaced by the also strapping Bronco Lane, played by Ty Hardin. Eventually, Walker and the studio got themselves together, Bronco got his own gig, and all was well on the Western front.

But the first episode, called “Mountain Fortress,” was before all that drama. It quickly establishes the plot – Cheyenne is a white guy whose parents were killed by Native Americans, and who was raised by the Cheyenne. Now, post Civil War, Cheyenne and his sidekick Smitty Smith – for real – roam the West. I believe they’re map makers for the government. Or something. I’m not sure. I got distracted by the villain, a dude named Manson.

Of course, in 1955, nobody could know how loaded a name this would be, but the Mansons have some similarities. Both are the leaders of a cult of personality who prey on others for some agenda. The Western Manson’s motivations are not helter skelter but hella cash. (Sorry. All I got.) He and his men, including a Mexican sidekick whose accent wavers between Mexican, Chef Boyardee commercial offensive Italian, and Gumby, have taken advantage of the impending attacks by Native Americans to capture Cheyenne, Smitty, a former Confederate soldier with a cute dog, and a lady who survives an attack on her stagecoach.

This lady is on her way to a nearby fort to be reunited with her fiancee, an officer named Brad that she hadn’t seen in 2 years. She assumes he’s still there. This tells you how much technology has changed human behavior, because if I haven’t talked to you and confirmed our plans within two hours, I’m not driving to Starbucks, let alone hop in a stagecoach and bump through the desert looking for a guy I haven’t seen in two years.

And then I saw that Brad was being played by a young, square-jawed, barrel-chested and entirely fine James Garner, and I kinda got it. Sorta. There’s a funny line where the girl is freaking out over having seen everyone on the stagecoach slaughtered and Cheyenne says “After you and the Lieutenant get married, you’ll forget this ever happened.”

James Garner is fine. But not perhaps “forgetting mass murder” fine.

At the end of the show, a tribe is attacking and Brad wants to go get help from the rest of the soldiers at the fort, but Manson isn’t having it. Neither is Fake Mexican, who just shoots Manson to get him to shut the heck up. This frees everyone up to fight, but does not protect our friend the Confederate soldier, who has asked Brad’s girl to watch his dog if anything happens to him. This virtually ensures that something – like death – was going to happen to him.

I really liked this show, because of all of the strapping manliness, and because even in the cliche-ridden plot there were a few things I didn’t see coming, like the defection of Fake Mexican. Or James Garner living through the episode, because boyfriends never do.

Friday and Saturday’s Lester Westerns comes a little late – I had some Internet issues that precluded me getting them up sooner. And I regret having to go to the TV show well so soon, but it couldn’t be helped.

Today’s episode of “The Big Valley” is about nationalism, prejudice, the little guy striking a blow against the man, industrial strangleholds and dated ethnic stereotypes. It’s also further evidence that those Barkleys, those fabulously rich rancher do-gooders, just cannot stop meddling in other people’s business. Of course, it’s their show, and if they didn’t, there would be very little plot:

Downtrodden Persecuted Neighbor: I’m being persecuted by some oppressive overwhelming force! Won’t you let me hide out at your spacious home, where I’m sure none of the people after me aren’t gonna come looking for me?

Victoria Barkley: Child, please. I just got the chandeliers restrung after the last time we got shot up protecting some knuckleheads.  Stay strong. Be well. Chin up. Just get the heck out of here before we have to start dodging bullets, because I will bill you. Or your heirs. Believe that.

That, of course, never happens, so Nick finds himself, and eventually his brothers, caught up in the drama surrounding demonstrative Greek immigrant Bodos (Tige Andrews, whose birth name was Tiger!). Bodos and his silent younger brother Alexandros. Bodos wants to ship his crop of delicious peaches to the big city, but has a difference of opinion with Mr. Minter, the guy from the railroad.

And by “difference of opinion,” I mean “all-out furniture chucking brouhaha.” Minter offers a ridiculous price, and is also a wee disrespectful and starts eating one of the peaches just to be a jerk. So Bodos starts beating the peaches right out of him. He gets arrested, and cheerfully admits that he’d like to get out of the pokey so he can commence to beating on Minter. But instead, he decides to load his peaches and his oddly silent brother on a wagon to get to market himself, without the railroad.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t plan on the jerks from the railroad blocking the path, telling him that they owned the land he wanted to go through, and that it was the railway or no way. Bodos, not one for restraint, gets into a fight with them, and poor Alexandros winds up silently shot to death – the scene where they tell Bodos and he’s insisting that he’s fine is a triumph of overacting, the channeling of Ricky Schroeder from “The Champ” some 12 years later.

Read the full story

“Top Chef” has turned over a new page in its tenure on Bravo, with a new judge, a new judging strategy and a staggered elmination process. We won’t know who all 16 chefs who get to go into the house and compete to get voted off some other time are. And we won’t get a chance to see Lindsay Autry of the Michelle Bernstein restaurant at the Omphoy until next week. I’m pulling for her, because with 29 people vying for those spots, it’s nuts. There are a lot of people you barely get to know, although in one case – snotty young chef Tyler, who screwed everyone on his team up by badly butchering their meat – I know all I wanna know.

It works like this – thee groups of chefs come in having to work with a specific meat – the first two were pig and rabbit – and then are either voted right into the house, left on the bubble, or dismissed immediately. It was brutal and kind of fun because I was watching it from my floor eating a bowl of granola and soy milk, and not having my dreams dashed. That’s probably less fun.

Read the full story

Bold and I boasted so much about the fun we had pouring wine at the Lexus Taste at Downtown at the Gardens last year that Sweet and Dry have made sure to clear their calendars this year so they don’t miss out again.

We’re honored to have been invited to participate in this food and wine event that raises money for the Big Heart Brigade’s Thanksgiving Dinner Drive, which provides holiday meals for the less fortunate. On November 10, from 5:30 – 9:00 p.m., Downtown at the Gardens in Palm Beach Gardens will transform into a party venue with a plethora of culinary treats and libations, in addition to live music and a fireworks show.

However, the real thrill is, you get a discount on your advance ticket purchase because you’re a Swirl Girls reader. The “Taste Pass” is available to you for $35 (that’s 30 percent off the advance ticket price of $50!) Just head over to the Lexus Taste at Downtown web site at www.tasteatdowntown.com and use the promo code SWIRLGIRLS when you make your purchase.

If you need a little prodding to get out there and join us, we’ll be pouring a great selection of wines — something for every palate:

Wonderful whites:
Perrier-Jouet Grand Brut
Columbia Winery Cellarmaster’s Riesling
Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc

Ravishing reds:
Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Village
Oyster Bay Pinot Noir
Querceto Chianti Classico Reserva
Artesa Elements Cabernet Sauvignon
Brazin Old Vine Zinfandel

We’re looking forward to seeing you there and sharing a sip!

The entertainment gods giveth, and then taketh away: 2010 “American Idol” runner-up Crystal Bowersox got axed from her record label this week, but she made her acting debut last night on ABC’s “Body of Proof.” The dreadlocked blues lady played Zoe, an incarcerated single mother with a drug history caught up in the murder of a rich horseswoman whose equestrian program Zoe was involved in.

And – surprise – she’s great! Crystal has told reporters that she was mad nervous about the role – but star Dana Delany says she’s a natural, and I have to agree. There’s a scene where Zoe’s maternal instinct comes into play, and either Crystal’s natural mothering kicked in or she’s a genius, because she made me cry. And I am not a crier under normal network television circumstances unless there’s a military funeral or puppies involved.

So even if this big record company thing doesn’t work out for her – and I believe Crystal’s gracious comments about appreciating even the 200,000 records that her “Farmer’s Daughter” release sold – she’s got some acting chops. Also, B.B. King loves her. So, there’s that.